Dances With Films Festival eschews star power to focus on unknown and emerging talent

For all but the most dedicated cinephiles, a glance at the roster of actors and filmmakers featured in the Dances With Films Festival would likely prompt a blank stare or perhaps a murmur of "Who?" And that's precisely the point.

After Speilberg's mega-hit "Jaws" (1975), with Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider, he was no longer just a director for hire, but a director who could sit in the main chair of any film he wanted. Speilberg was also credited with beginning the tradition of the summer blockbuster.

After Speilberg's mega-hit "Jaws" (1975), with Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider, he was no longer just a director for hire, but a director who could sit in the main chair of any film he wanted. Speilberg was also credited with beginning the tradition of the summer blockbuster. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times; Universal Pictures)

Cameron had been preparing himself for a career in visual effects by working for B-movie king Roger Corman. "The Terminator" (1984), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, showcased those skills and offered a taste of what Cameron would continue to offer cinema.

Cameron had been preparing himself for a career in visual effects by working for B-movie king Roger Corman. "The Terminator" (1984), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, showcased those skills and offered a taste of what Cameron would continue to offer cinema. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times; Artisan Home Entertainment)

Nolan's "Memento" (2001), starring Guy Pearce, generated buzz on the festival circuit, but took nearly a year before it spawned commercial success. It ultimately thrust Nolan into the limelight and to the Oscars, where he earned nominations for editing and screenplay.

Nolan's "Memento" (2001), starring Guy Pearce, generated buzz on the festival circuit, but took nearly a year before it spawned commercial success. It ultimately thrust Nolan into the limelight and to the Oscars, where he earned nominations for editing and screenplay. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times; Danny Rothenberg / Newmarket films)

"Our whole thrust is on no celebrities," said Leslee Scallon, who founded Dances With Films 17 years ago with Michael Trent when they couldn't get their own low-budget feature into any festivals.

"Truly, anybody who's a big enough name to open a film isn't somebody that we're going to invite into our festival" to premiere a film, she said. "We're very much about the discovery of new filmmakers … and showing the industry and the L.A. film-loving audiences a little bit of what else can be out there besides what's being released by studios."

Dances With Films — the moniker is a cheeky reference to the onetime proliferation of festivals with "dance" in the name, including Sundance, Slamdance, Digidance and Nodance — will open this year with Riz Story's "A Winter Rose" and close with fellow festival alum Erik Peter Carlson's "The Toy Soldiers."

In between, the fest will screen more than 100 narrative features, shorts, documentaries and music videos, while also hosting panels and conversations with industry players. New to the festival this year is Dances With Kidz, a showcase of family-friendly films and movies made by kids.

Organizers are hoping to draw 12,000 to 14,000 attendees over the course of the festival. For more information, go to danceswithfilms.com.

"Jersey Boys," Clint Eastwood's big-screen adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical about the 1960s rock group the Four Seasons, will premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival next month, where it will serve as the closing-night film.

The Hollywood Film Festival boasts an enviable name, one that directly invokes the entertainment capital of the world, but since its founding in 1997, it has struggled to carve out a niche for itself among the thousands of film fests worldwide and the dozens in the Southland alone.

John Boorman has made a lot of tough-nosed, violent and demanding films, including the 1967 film noir "Point Blank" with Lee Marvin, the Oscar-nominated 1972 thriller "Deliverance," starring Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, and "Excalibur," the visceral 1981 dramatic fantasy based on King Arthur...

In its own disturbing, slithery way, the train-wreck watchable melodrama "Maps to the Stars" is as much a horror show as any that the film's director, David Cronenberg, has helmed over his long and provocative career.